Key Witness in Kilpatrick Trial: I May Have Dementia

Kado, whose cooperation in the investigation was important for the government, was asked by Thomas if he was working for prosecutors.

“I think I’m working for the truth,” he replied.

Kado has told jurors that he gave cash to the Kilpatricks because he feared he would lose work at Cobo Center, a downtown convention hall, if he didn’t meet their wishes. Cobo no longer is controlled by the city and instead is run by a five-member regional authority.

Much of the day’s cross-examination was handled by John Shea, attorney for Bernard Kilpatrick. He repeatedly tried to emphasize in front of jurors that Kado had legitimately sought the elder Kilpatrick’s help in getting Detroit to pay overdue bills owed to him.

Shea tried to dent the government’s argument that cash changed hands for corrupt reasons, even playing the FBI’s own secretly recorded phone calls where Kado asks for Bernard Kilpatrick’s assistance.

“I thought you told me to leave it alone,” Bernard Kilpatrick said in one call, referring to money owed to Kado by the city.

Kwame Kilpatrick, a Democrat whose mother is former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, was elected mayor in 2001. He resigned in 2008 and pleaded guilty to obstructing justice by lying in a civil case about having sex with an aide. He subsequently served 14 months in prison for violating his probation in that case.